Bipartisan coalition tasks Ryan to block EPA water rule

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is gearing up for an end-of-year showdown with the Environmental Protection Agency over its contentious clean water rules that they say encroach on the rights of states and private landowners.

Reps. Bill Shuster, R-Penn,, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio, chairman of the committee's water and environment subcommittee, urged House leadership Monday to use an end-of-year spending bill debate to include a provision that blocks the implementation of the EPA's Waters of the United States, or WOTUS, rule.

A letter sent Monday to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., was co-signed by a group of 88 Democrats and Republicans urging him to support inclusion of the provision in a bill to fund the government next month. Government funding runs out Dec. 11.